Halloween Mantel & Foyer

Blue Creek Home is always decked out for every major holiday. Even though my girls are all grown up and gone, I still love to ready the house for whatever season is approaching.

It isn’t nearly as much fun without them. They always had great ideas. Well, there was this one phase where they wanted everything way overdone – It is what I would call “happy tacky! They wanted our house to look like the houses that we passed after dark with all the blow up figures, crooked lights, no particular theme, and lots and lots of bling! It cracked me up!! I did actually let them go wild one year for Halloween. Yikes- that really did scare everybody!! Thank goodness that phase passed quickly. The blow up yard things are delightful at night. Then they get unplugged at bedtime, the sun comes up, and yards across America become Rubber Graveyards!

Sorry, I can ramble on – ask G-Man or any one of my sisters!

So, this year we couldn’t locate all of our Halloween/Fall/Thanksgiving boxes. It was the box with all the foliage and who knows what else. We had to buy a few things, but with Hobby Lobby and their 1/2 price sales and 40% off coupons, we didn’t have to spend much.

The mantel looks like this most of the year.

The mantel and the over mantel that I made the guest room bed from came from the same place. (I also used two matching ones for mirrors in our master bath

I changed out the paintings for one of a dining room. I draped black spider webs over it, exposing the crystal chandelier.

Directions for the picture on the left can be found here.

I especially like the gray cheesecloth draped behind the leaf garlands. It’s called Spooky Stretch- from the Dollar Tree.

I went for a lite spooky theme in the foyer. I have never liked the blood dripping, monster faced, scare the (bleep) out of you look! That’s all a little much for me.

I had this black pleated fabric for years. I clipped it over the tapestry that lives here year round. It sets the dark tone and provides a good background for the decorations.

Love my pheasant hide – a gift from a friend in Jackson

Remember the metal cone I made? I hung it off the urn handle. This one is monogrammed with the letter S, but it would be cute to do a ghost shape or write Boo!

This was the only black bird left in the area and I found him! He seems to be trapped atop a column. I bet he wishes he had stayed at "Big Lotts"!

This not so itsy bitsy spider crawled up my antique lamp!!! ( I hate spiders…I didn’t eeeven like touching this one!)

Making this tree was lots of fun. First, I went on a nature walk and found some gnarly branches. After spraying them black, I secured them in the urn, added some moss around the top, hung the standard bats, spiders, webs, etc., and added some moss and pretty sheer ribbon. Done!

Playing with Picasa!

It’s Met Monday over at "Between Naps On The Porch". Be sure to visit Susan. She was just featured at Houzz!!

Tuesday is "DIY Day" with Kimba @ "A Soft Place To Land".




Cheri is hosting "Celebrate the Holidays" @ "It's So Very Cheri" on Wednesday. This should be a fun party.




On Thursday, I will join the party at "The Shabby Chic Cottage" for Transformation Thursday.

Rhonda